In acute myeloid leukemia treatment, infighting just might be positive

Elizabeth Budde, M.D., Ph.D., wants to encourage infighting. She aims to turn the immune system on itself — to the benefit of patients with acute myeloid leukemia, or AML.

In a new treatment for acute myeloid leukemia, Elizabeth Budde is using modified white blood cells to attack their malignant cousins.

AML arises when abnormal white blood cells grow out of control, amassing in the bone marrow and interfering with normal blood cell development. Blood stem cell transplants are the only hope of cure for most patients with AML; however, many patients eventually see their cancer return.

Budde wants to give patients with relapsed AML a fighting chance by giving them modified white blood cells that attack their malignant cousins.

Her work is garnering increased attention. Budde, an assistant professor in the Department ofHematology & Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation at City of Hope, has been chosen as The Jake Wetchler Foundation for Innovative Pediatric Cancer Research-Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation Clinical Investigator. The accompanying $450,000 grant will support her studies for the next three years.

Although these “T cells” normally fight disease in the body, cancer cells can avoid detection and thrive. Budde’s efforts, under the mentorship of Stephen J. Forman, M.D., Francis & Kathleen McNamara Distinguished Chair in Hematology and Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation, reprograms T cells to see the malignant cells for what they are and destroy them.

The grant will support a first-in-human clinical trial to test the safety of the educated T cells and find out how effective they are in killing cancer cells. It also will help Budde find ways to boost the potency of the T cells and make the therapy more effective.

Budde believes that her studies “have the potential to change the treatment paradigm and significantly improve the cure rate for patients with leukemia in the future.”

“Support such as this generous award is critical to our clinical research efforts,” said Steven T. Rosen, M.D., provost and chief scientific officer. “It represents important and prestigious recognition of the quality of work Dr. Budde and her colleagues are conducting.”

Budde is the third recipient of The Jake Wetchler Foundation for Innovative Pediatric Cancer Research-Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation award and the first clinical investigator to be supported through this partnership. She also is the first City of Hope clinical investigator to receive support from either foundation.

How sad for my friend David who just passed away this morning , he was only diagnosed two months ago..They did massive chemo therapy in Kansas City that didn’t work …He chose not to seek further help after what chemo did to his body….It’s so sad that a wife has lost her husband , that children have lost their father , all without a fight.